A sleepless night for thousands: Death fear keeps Hyderabad awake

Nothing spreads faster than a rumour! India has had a taste of this bitter truth in recent weeks with rumours of attacks against people from the North- East triggering large-scale exodus from different parts of the country.

On Wednesday, a rumour created panic among thousands of people in several districts of Andhra Pradesh, keeping them awake throughout the night.

All it took was a crank call to send reason to fly out of the windows. A call, supposedly originating from Mumbai, claimed that anyone who slept in the night would die in their sleep.

Residents of the Old City of Hyderabad
outside their homes

The rumour had its desired effect as people in rural Andhra Pradesh, such as Anantapur, Nizamabad, Kurnool, Mahbubnagar, Medak and Ranga Reddy besides the Old City of Hyderabad came out of their houses and spent the whole night on the streets discussing the mysterious phone call that had forced them to undergo a sleepless night.

Not much is known as to how and when the rumour started, but people in these districts claimed to have received phone calls at around 11 pm on Wednesday which claimed that a baby had prophesied within hours of her birth that anybody who slept at night would not see the light of day.

Within hours, the rumour spread like wildfire and people started coming out of their houses. 'All through the night we did not sleep and did not let our children sleep. Even when the children were falling asleep, we woke them up,' Parvathamma, a housewife from Loyapalli village in Ranga Reddy district, said. She said initially they refused to believe it.

'But we could not take a chance and risk our lives.' In Mahbubnagar district, people living in remote tribal hamlets such as Palkonda Thanda went through a similar situation.

They said they were warned by the village elders that they would die if they went off to sleep. Similar reports were received from Anantapur, Medak, Nizamabad and Kurnool districts as well.

'Nobody could say anything about the origin of the rumour. But the people got panicky and were forced to remain awake all through the night,' Madhusudhan, a farmer from Sangareddy in Medak district, said.

While the women and children kept themselves busy watching television, the men came out on the streets to keep vigil. The police and some NGOs swung into action and asked the people not to believe the rumours and go to sleep.

But the people were too panicky to listen to them. On Thursday morning, people breathed easy when they realised nothing had happened to those who had gone off to sleep in other parts of the state.

However, the people are still scared and the sleepless night has affected children the most, who could not attend school on Thursday.